Young mother finds Lithuanian lorry driver living in her shed

When Kelly Dudley first spotted a man in blue overalls in her garden she assumed he had been sent by the landlord to clear the overgrowth.

But when she saw him emerge from the shed on a Sunday morning looking well-rested she suspected something was up.

She took a look inside and discovered a remarkable scene of domesticity.

Kelly Dudley in the shed a Lithuanian crane driver had made his home

Kelly Dudley in the shed a Lithuanian crane driver had made his home

He had put in a large wooden-framed single bed, two televisions, a full-size television aerial, a chest of drawers, a camping stove, pots and pans, a carpet, crockery, bags full of clothes, aftershave, a shaving mirror and a state-of-the-art juicer.

'It beggars belief,' said Kelly, 25, from Banbury, Oxfordshire.

'The police came and tried to speak to him but all he could say was his name is John, he'd been there five days and he drives lorries and cranes.

'I've got no idea how he did it and I've been on maternity leave while he's been there, so he did it right under my nose.

'He's cleared my whole garden completely without any tools and once I'd finished being scared I actually felt a bit sorry for him - he's clearly very house-proud, it's been kept very tidy and is probably nicer than some bedsits you can get in Banbury.

'I put some pot plants out and he even planted them in the garden one day.'

Miss Dudley said she thinks her unexpected guest had been evicted from a previous property but has no idea how or why he chose to take up residence in her shed, which had been left unlocked.

'He offered to pay me rent and do my gardening for free if I let him stay there,' she said.'I've got a six-month-old daughter and I might have considered it if I didn't have her.

'It's an amazing, funny story but it's also very frightening - My daughter Chloe is very young and he could have been anybody.'

Police officers visited the shed after Miss Dudley reporting the incident on Sunday and were as flabbergasted as she was. He has not been seen since Sunday.

'I don't know if he's coming back but I'd like to speak to him about it if he does,' she said.

PC Matt Locke of Banbury police station said: 'We were contacted by a woman who claimed a homeless man was living in her shed.

'Local PCSOs visited and discovered a bed, television and other personal property had been moved into the shed.

'Another PC and I attended and interviewed the man, who was totally co-operative. He told us he was a Lithuanian national who had lost his job and became homeless.

'The garden, which has access from the road, was very overgrown and he thought the shed was abandoned, so he moved in, even cleaning up the garden.

'He hadn't committed any criminal offences, but we asked him to move on and he did so willingly, telling us he was going to pursue ways of returning to his home country.'